Restless? Snowbound? Check out OW:W

Welcome to Old Weather: Whaling!

Old Weather: Whaling is the sister project of the Zooniverse’s successful and ongoing Old Weather, run by the same team. These projects allow online volunteers to assist in exploring, marking, and transcribing ship’s logs, largely from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Like the original Old Weather, OW:W is about extracting historic weather measurements (and other data) from these logs. However, OW:W offers particular focus on observations of sea ice, which many whaling ships sailed through and documented while navigating Arctic waters.

By participating in Old Weather: Whaling, you’ll be helping to advance research in multiple fields. Data about sea ice and other weather events are useful to climate scientists, while historians value knowing the course of a voyage and the events that transpired on board. You might even discover something that takes everyone by surprise. We hope you’ll join us on this exciting dive into maritime history!